Andrei Demurenko
Andrei Demurenko | |
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| Born | 28 April 1955 |
| Allegiance |
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| Service | |
| Years of service |
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| Rank | Colonel |
| Commands | "Wolf" infantry brigade |
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Andrei Vladimirovich Demurenko (Russian: Андрей Владимирович Демуренко; born 28 April 1955) is a Russian Ground Forces colonel and military commentator. He was the chief of staff of the United Nations Protection Force in the Sarajevo sector in 1995, during the Bosnian War, and was the deputy director of the peacekeeping department at the Russian General Staff during the late 1990s. Demurenko came out of retirement in 2023 to fight in the Russo-Ukrainian War, serving in the Battle of Bakhmut before being injured and removed from the front.
He is the first and only Russian officer to graduate from the United States Army Command and General Staff College.
Early life and education
[edit]Demurenko was born on 28 April 1955 to a military family. He graduated from the Moscow Higher Combined Arms Command School and was commissioned as an officer in 1976. He also graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1984.[1]
Military career
[edit]During his career in the Soviet Army, Demurenko held commands at the platoon, company, battalion, and regimental level and also served in staff positions.[1] He was an artilleryman.[2]
Demurenko studied at the United States Army Command and General Staff College and graduated in 1993, becoming the first,[3] and as of 2009, the only Russian officer to have graduated from that college.[1] It also made him the first Russian or American officer to graduate from the mid-level officer training institution of both countries, since he was also an alumnus of the Frunze Military Academy.[4] While he was in the United States, in May 1993 he took part in an exercise at the National Training Center in southern California, being an assistant to the commander of the opposing force that simulated two attacks on U.S. forces. Both of them were victories for the opposing force.[4]
When Russia sent a battalion of peacekeepers to the Bosnia-Herzegovina capital of Sarajevo in 1994, their second peacekeeping battalion in the former Yugoslavia,[5] Demurenko was part of the deployment.[1] From January to December 1995 he was the chief of staff of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) Sarajevo sector.[4] He was in that role when the second Markale massacre happened in August. He arrived at the scene two hours after it happened and carried out his own investigation into the incident.[6] He concluded at the time that there was little probability that shelling from the Bosnian Serbs was the cause of the massacre,[7] and said that the other UNPROFOR members were too quick to blame the Serbs before any investigation had been completed.[6] Demurenko believed that it was not possible determine which side caused the explosion based on the evidence.[2][6]
Demurenko publicly opposed the claim by the UN and NATO that the Serbs were responsible for the massacre.[2] Incidents of Serb shelling of Sarajevo were used as the justification by NATO for launching an air campaign in Bosnia around that time, and the controversy over the August 1995 Markale massacre led some in the Russian media to see it as a "provocation" to justify the NATO intervention against Bosnian Serbs.[7] During his service in Sarajevo he also wrote a manual that compared the Russian and Western views on peacekeeping, titled Peacekeeping Operations: General Missions, Methods, Phases.[4][8]
Demurenko returned to Russia in January 1996,[4] and was later among the first group of Russian officers to serve as representatives at the NATO headquarters.[1] In the second half of the 1990s he was in the Russian General Staff as the deputy director of its Peacekeeping Directorate[4] and was also a member of its Main Operations Directorate.[1] Demurenko was retired from active duty as of 2002.[9]
Later life
[edit]After his retirement Demurenko spoke to the media and at other events as a military commentator.[1][9][10][11]
In 2012, Demurenko was the first witness called on by the defense at the trial of Radovan Karadžić by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. During his cross-examination by the prosecution he testified that his own investigation determined that the shelling that caused the second Markale market massacre in Sarajevo in August 1995 was not fired from the positions held by the Army of Republika Srpska.[6] He also testified again near the end of the trial in 2016.[12]
During the Russo-Ukrainian War he volunteered to return to active service. In March 2023, he arrived at the Battle of Bakhmut as first deputy commander of the "Wolf" infantry brigade that covered the flank of the Wagner Group forces. The brigade was led by a Serbian officer, but Demurenko was the de facto commander because of his experience and language ability. In May 2023, while on a reconnaissance mission, he received a head injury during an artillery strike. He was withdrawn from the front line because of the injury.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g Ivanov, Vladimir (3 April 2009). "Двусторонний самообман – двусторонний проигрыш" [Two-way self-deception is a two-way loss]. Novaya Gazeta (in Russian). Retrieved 9 January 2024.
- ^ a b c Baumann, Robert F.; Gawrych, George W.; Kretchik, Walter E. "Armed Peacekeepers in Bosnia" (PDF). Combat Studies Institute Press. p. 43. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
- ^ Zisk 1999, p. 586.
- ^ a b c d e f Timothy, Thomas L. (Fall 1996). "Russian "Lessons Learned" In Bosnia". Military Review. Foreign Military Studies Office, U.S. Army. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
- ^ Kipp & Warren 2003, p. 37.
- ^ a b c d "Karadzic Calls His First Witness". Balkan Insight. 16 October 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
- ^ a b Kipp & Warren 2003, p. 43–44.
- ^ Kipp & Warren 2003, pp. 120–121.
- ^ a b "Война с террором продолжается?" [The war on terror is continuing?]. BBC Russian (in Russian). 14 October 2002. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
- ^ "ЗИМНЯЯ АКАДЕМИЯ - 2007 "НАТО в развитии: трансформация и операции"" [Winter Academy - 2007 "NATO in development: transformation and operations"] (in Russian). NATO. 2 March 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ^ "Russia: New and old challenges to international humanitarian law – Martens Readings". International Committee of the Red Cross. 18 June 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ^ "Last Mladic Trial Witnesses to Start Testifying". Balkan Insight. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ^ Cuesta, Javier G. (6 October 2024). "The battle Russia has not yet fought: The mental health of its war veterans". El Pais. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
Sources
[edit]- Kipp, Jacob W.; Warren, Tarn (2003). "The Russian Separate Airborne Brigade – Peacekeeping in Bosnia-Herzegovina". In Mackinlay, John; Cross, Peter (eds.). Regional peacekeepers: The paradox of Russian peacekeeping (PDF). Tokyo: United Nations University. ISBN 92-808-1079-0.
- Zisk, Kimberly Marten (Summer 1999). "Contact Lenses: Explaining U.S.-Russian Military-to-Military Ties". Armed Forces & Society. 25 (4): 579–611. JSTOR 45346330.